City Ministries

City Ministries is about helping children, families and community by providing social and educational services from a faith-based perspective with our foster care
program, housing program and preschool kindergarten.

Our foster care agency is in its 9th year of helping more than 108 children in need of an out of home placement. We and the DSHS (State of Washington) consider success for children to be able to return home to a healthier, safe family. To that end we have seen 103 children return to home or extended family and had foster parents adopt 4. There is a concern about children staying in foster care too long or coming back into care after returning home. We have a good track record of helping state social workers to move children toward permanency in a timely manner and being there with our foster families should they need to come back into care for a short period (this has happened 3 times).
Fiscal Year 2017-2018 we will license our first 2 foster families able to handle medically fragile children- which is a huge need. These families need support - with respite providers who are medically trained, and the ability to have case aids who have or can get the proper training. This is a specialize type of foster care and the people who do it are true heroes.
We continue to dream of starting a program for youth aging out in hopes of keeping them from likely outcomes of: jail, homelessness, or sex trafficking. This program is in the planning stages with hopes of launch in Fiscal 2018-2019.
The Foster care agency works with a very lean, educated professional staff - which we plan to add 2FTE in Summer 2017 to make a team of 6. This increase will support our goal to double our number of licensed providers to 30, and thereby increasing our capacity for children to 48.
City Kids School is a current 3 year - awardee of the STARS Program and a developmentally appropriate preschool/kindergarten that makes learning fun! Our goal is to equip the next generation with the building blocks necessary for their future. We have been serving the community for 18 years and accept DSHS students each year (we have not had to limit enrollment and welcome more). The school has had steady growth with 150 students enrolled ages 2 - Kindergarten. We are one of the few preschools that accept 2-year-old.
The school staff is diverse and all have STARS credentials, some with bachelor's degrees and a couple with master's level education. The staff truly love working with young children and many have worked at the school 5 or more years. We are intentional about preparing children to be lifelong learners: City Kids School - Where play meets learning!
The Rose Hill Cottages consists of 22 homes built for families that want to do foster care to rent at lower than market rates. Living in the cottages provides a managed community with other families who are licensed. The homes were built entirely with private funding. The Aaron Haskins Community Center hosts training, children's activities for foster care program, property management office, and is available for tenants to rent for private events. The neighborhood has a beautiful playground. Future projects include: putting in a vault in 2 remaining drainage areas to create another green area play space, and expanding the community center onto the other area.